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A BLOG ABOUT CRAFTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR NORTH

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Three Christmas Wreath Stories to Craft By

This is the story of one night, three wreaths and two crafters . . .

One magical evening a few weeks before Christmas I sat down to decorate my apartment in holiday style. With snow sprinkling beyond the twinkly lighted windows, I armed myself with three foam rings (thanks to the local craft store), some hot glue (and hot cocoa) and supplies scrounged from the depths of the craft closet, and got to work. With only one evening to get the décor done I needed to whip out three wreaths within record time to get the holiday spirit flowing.

The first wreath started off in a blur of red and green yarn. Taking one strand of dark green and one strand of light I made a knot and pinned it into the foam wreath using a straight pin. Quick as a bunny, I began to wrap and wrap and wrap the strands around the wreath base. As I wrapped, the strands twisted together to make a mess. I wrapped and untwisted and wrapped and untwisted as I went. Suddenly, I looked down and noticed the wrapping had completely covered the base! I tied the ends around and left a long tail hang it by. The wreath was fully covered, but something inside me was unsettled. Where were the red berries on this green wreath? Where was the green leaf to the red berries on the green wreath? I sighed. But then it hit me, wrapping red yarn into red balls could easily make berries, and I could crochet a small green leaf in minutes.

Success! After wrapping three small red berry balls, I stitched the leaf with a quick chain of six, then single crocheted each row thereafter, reducing one stitch in each row to make the leaf come to a point. Tucking the leaf under the berries completed the adventure, and it was onto the next wreath-venture!

I then enlisted the help of my house elves (aka my super-crafty beau Cap'n). I set before him a glue gun, a box of saved bottle caps, and a small foam wreath. I slyly peeked at his process while he worked to glean his crafting secrets. At first I was confused as he bent several bottle caps in half. Then he began to glue and glue. Using the low setting on the glue gun (as the high setting would melt the foam) he skillfully hot-glued layers of flat green caps into place.

Then, out of nowhere, he started attaching the bent caps like rays on a star, or a sweet bottle-capped mistletoe wreath! And voila, two wreaths adorned our walls!

In the meantime I searched the craft closet high and low for some delicious fabric or felt to cover over the third cold and lonely foam O. Under a swath of plaid, below a snippet of metallic, I found the perfect fodder: green fleece with red polka dots (do not ask me when, why or where I bought this)! The night was dwindling and my eyes were growing heavy so I had to make this fast. With a pair of scissors and a box of straight pins I got to work. I cut and cut and cut squares of the fleece, and layered them into piles of two, then stuck each straight pin through the center of the squares and into the foam.

The layers of deliciously cozy fleece fluffed together to create a mania of fleecy wreathness. I topped the whole thing off with a fluff of red felt and my night was complete. I stumbled into bed fulfilled and ready for the next crafting adventure around the corner.

Hahah- thanks Pink!! Yes, we did sleep well that night- they were actually surprisingly fast to make- especially because there were two of us!! If we'd had a crowd of wreath-makers they might be taking over the world by now- ahha. Merry Christmas!!